December
by BFoS
Summary: A teenager from our world finds a terrible truth far too late. Then that terrible memory is erased from her mind. Now she searches for answers in a new land she has awakened in.
1. Chapter 1

What do you know, a new story. And what do you know again, it doesn't contain much action like my other two.

Here's another story I thought up one day while reading one of my favorite fanfics. At first, I didn't like it because it sounded to cliche to even me. But, I got entangled in it and I soon just had to write it, which is now. I want to give thanks to someone though, and that's Ryu the Weredragon.

showed me something in that conversation on Tuesday that really made me think once I had thought more and more about this. I toned it down a bit, but it's still M. Not because language though, and not because violence. It's M for racism in later chapters.

Then, now for the reason why I think this one is special. I dedicate this story to one of my favorite writers here: Coldfire323. You're awesome.

and finally, I don't own Pokémon.

**Prologue**

The date was December 24, 1990, nearing midnight. Everything that could possibly be imagined was being closed, and everything you wouldn't expect full would be alive. Today, a hispanic woman would've been at home, with her love and her child. But it was that day that fate decided to cheat her.

She was at the hospital. It was full of the bad side of Christmas: rapes, shootings, teenage drinking parties, accidental Christmas car crashes, victims of ice left wondering in snow…the list would go on and on afterwards. And of course, there was one thing that really crowded the hospital that Christmas night. Babies.

Yes, everyone was having a baby right before Christmas Eve. Or at least said so. This caused all doctors to be full with them and have to ignore some of the more serious incidents of Christmas on that Denver Christmas morning.

And this is what the woman was doing there.

She was in her early forties and still in love mad with her husband. They had already had a child, male, and now they've gone for another round after a couple of years. Her husband made a promise to her that he would be there for the entire time. He would make sure. But for some reason or another, he was not there.

This had made her nervous, but the helpful hands of the little amount of doctors able to be in the room at the moment tried their very best to calm her until she had the baby.

The lights began to flicker, everywhere. A thunderstorm was beginning to brew in outside. Thunderstorms couldn't possibly be strong enough to do that. It'd have to be pouring or at an extremely high pitch. This wasn't calming the woman.

After another strike, the lights, and electricity, went off. Everywhere. All around the city. Some Christmas surprise, eh?

Feeling the sense of claustrophobia, the woman cried. And at the same time, another voice, much smaller, cried in unison. It was the birth of her child.

And at the moment of the cries of joy in the room, the clock that currently was not working in the room would've reached 12:00 AM. Christmas miracle.

The woman received her baby, pleased. But the news was to only get worse.

The lights came back on. Waiting at the door, were officers. She looked at them, confused for a moment. They came into the room, despite the doctors telling them to leave. But they didn't.

When they were at the foot of the bed, they looked very grim. They were afraid of revealing the truth to the woman. But she had a right. So they told her.

Her husband and other child were dead.


	2. Pokémon

I _really _think that this should stay at an M because of what I plan...you'll see later, but it's nothing like nudity. Just, you know, _themes_ is something you can call them.

**Chapter 1: Pokémon**

_January 21, 1996_

It was a bright and sunny day out in the back, yet strangely it was one of the very cold days. The sun beat down and could make you sweat hard, but still, there was snow everywhere you could look.

Behind the house that a young girl lived in, the young girl played with her neighbor on one fine morning. They were wearing jackets, but they really wished they could take them off.

They sat on an outside table and were facing each other, holding what appeared to be "Pokémon" cards and yelling across at each other.

"Na-uh, my Charizard can beat your Squirtle," a little girl said to a little boy. She was about six years old. Her five year old neighbor persisted though, saying that because of his type advantage, he would destroy her Charizard, except it was in smaller terms.

"December," a voice called from the back door. The girl turned around and saw her Mom.

"Hi Mom! I love you!" she would always say that whenever she had the chance.

"Sweety, guess who's here to visit." She moved out of the way and a nine year old stepped into the backyard. It was her cousin Kike, pronounced "Kee-keh." That's what everyone called him though; his real name behind his nickname is Jesus, pronounced "Heh-soos."

"Hi December," Kike greeted, running towards her but hardly showing any emotion of happiness. December stood up and they hugged.

"Kike, we're playing Pokémon, wanna play?" she offered, pointing to her neighbor Nicky.

Kike opened his jacket and out came a case. He opened it, and hanging from inside it were many Pokémon cards already. "Yes! I'm the king at Pokémon!"

So they got started.

December sat on one side as Kike sat on the other side. Nicky moved away and watched from the side. Kike acted bravely and began to crack his knuckles, ready to begin.

December quickly, without giving Kike a chance, put down her Charizard. "You can't beat my Charizard!"

Kike was confused. He pulled out a coin from one of his many pockets. "You did know that you were suppose'd to flip a coin to see who starts, right?"

"You are?"

"Yeah. Okay, what are you?"

December picked up her Charizard card. "I'm Charizard!"

"No, I mean't pick tails or heads."

December looked at the coin. She was thinking in her mind, then began to stutter, "Um...uh—um—a hea—heads!"

Kike nodded. He flipped the coin into the air. It twisted for a moment as everything seemed to move in slow motion. Finally, it landed right in the middle of the table.

Kike grunted. "'kay, you go first."

Immediately, she placed her Charizard card down. "Charizard uses ember!"

Again, Kike looked at her with a confused face. "Where's your energy'd card?"

Now it was December who looked confused. "What's that?"

Nicky too was confused.

Kike sighed, and explained. He pulled from the case a blue card with a symbol on it that resembled water. "_This _is an energy'd card."

"Me and Nicky don't use them, they don't do anything."

"Actually, they do _everything_," Kike countered. "Without 'em, you can't attack me. Didn't you know'd that already?"

Puzzlement attached December's face.

"Besides, you can't use a Charizard when you don't have a Charmander or Charmeleon with you."

"Yes you can," December countered.

"No you can't. Look," he placed down a Bulbasaur card, then a grass energy card. "With this, I can attack'd you." He searched his case and placed an Ivysaur card down. "Pretend that you already went—,"

"But I didn't—,"

"I know, but pretend that you'd did." He brought the Ivysaur card down on top of the Bulbasaur. "Now I turned Bulbasaur into Ivysaur. See? But," he pointed at the energy card symbols next to the attack. "Now I need more energy'd cards to attack you. Look at the star next to the energy'd card signs. That means that you need any other energy'd card to let the attack be used." He pointed to sleep powder. "See that? If you choose that and you have the right signs, then you need to use this coin," he showed her his quarter, "to make me sleep or have the card not work'd."

December looked at everything he was teaching her. He went on and on, teaching her about each card's uses and how and when to use them. He showed her that you could only use one energy card every turn and cannot attack without them, and if you don't have them, then you don't attack. If you lose all your cards, you lose the game. You need to have four prize cards on the side, which are selected at random, and when your Pokémon is defeated, then the opponent must get one of the cards to keep. If you run out of the four cards, you lose.

He taught her everything. And after that long teaching, they were ready to play the game as it was meant to be played.

* * *

The game was intense, and every once in awhile, December would do something that Kike would say is "against the rules." He corrected her, and they continued. The game continued. Sometimes, Nicky would go behind Kike and yell out what cards he had, which really angered him. There would be a mini-fight, then they would continue yet again. 

Then came the end of the game. December defeated another one of Kike's Pokémon and took one of the two cards left of his four. It was a Charmander.

Behind her deck, she had her Charmeleon and Charizard ready. She placed the Charmander down-faced, not wanting Kike to know what it was, then placed a fire energy card down. She then attacked with her Meowth's Scratch. Kike's turn.

Kike attacked straight forward with a water gun from his Squirtle. Meowth, according to Kike, was on the brink of being defeated.

She put another fire card down, looking at her Charizard card. She just needed four fire energy cards. She needed to place two more. She put a potion on Meowth and healed it, then attacked with Scratch again. Kike wasn't watching his own health that he had forgotten how much he had lost, until December reminded him. He looked really mad.

He put his Squirtle with the rest of his pile and put on the spot a Pikachu. With the electric energy card he had already placed before, he set a water energy card beside it and used Thunderbolt. Meowth was fainted.

Kike pulled one of the two cards December had in the four prize area. It was gonna be an intense battle now. That was the thought on Kike's mind.

Another fire energy card was placed. She pulled her Rattata onto the battle, but forgot to put in an energy card for it. She had to skip it.

Kike put down a Raichu card down and another electric energy card. He attacked. Rattata was on the brink of losing, and December could lose if he succeeded.

December put down another fire card down on the Charmander and used a potion to cure Rattata. She had three energy cards remaining, so she called back Rattata and placed Charmander with the four energy cards.

Kike attacked. Charmander was hurt.

December put down the Charmeleon card. Kike got worried. He attacked, but the now Charmeleon's health had gone up.

Then, December placed down a Charizard card. She smiled. She used Fire Spin, and the Raichu was knocked out. She took the last card.

"I win," she said, then screamed to the world, "I am the Pokémon Champion!"

Nicky joined in the cheer and they had a good laugh together. Everything seemed to be going well, until Kike just snapped. He jumped on December, knocking her to the ground.

He put his hands around her neck, and squeezed tightly. She couldn't breathe. She tried hard, but his grip was strong. Nicky began to kick Kike, but Kike pushed him back, to where Nicky hit his head on the stone wall. He started to cry. And December was choking.

"_I _am the Pokémon Champion. _You _are a loser. I own all your cards." He gripped her even tighter. December felt like crying, but she was too busy trying to breathe.

December's Mom stepped outside, hearing the crying, and saw Kike on top of December. She was shocked, but came over it, running to them and picking Kike up, yelling at him to let go.

As she picked him up, his grip got tighter. December was picked up with Kike's tight grip. Finally, he let go.

December's Mom started screaming at Kike, asking why he had done that. December tried to make out what she was saying, but couldn't. She coughed at the ground. She turned around and saw Nicky still crying. December's brother, Rene, pronounced "Reh-nay" stepped out of the house and saw what was going on. he was a year younger than December.

Then December cried.

_Friend hunts friend._

* * *

I'm just a little bit confused on the age part, so if the age is five at that time based on when December was born, please correct me. XD

-phew- edited 6 times tonight, changing author notes and age confusion. XD


	3. Shiver

Just thought I'd write here again. Gee, maybe this won't be so hard to work on both...how does Saturday sound as "write for fanfiction" day?

**Chapter 2: Shiver**

_February 1, 1998_

A cold night it was. Colder than anything December had ever experienced before. Maybe it was because she wasn't used to the Alaska cold air.

Was where she was at the moment risky? Yes it was. Why? Because of who she was going to live with for the next week.

Somehow, December's mother thought it would make sense if they traveled to see their cousins in Alaska. One of them which was a retard. Who in fact was the same retard that had tried to kill her two years earlier.

It was the first time December had ever traveled anywhere by plane. It was pretty fun and scary at the same time to her, but after they landed, she would wonder if Kike still had a grudge against her. Would he even remember? She was told over and over again by her mother that she should forgive him and that he should do the same to her, but would he?

Outside in the front of the house they were. About to enter a house that really, December had never seen in her life. And she was expected to believe the ones who lived there would be the nicest of all.

Maybe they would. She would find the answer once her aunt opens the front door and invites the two in.

As her mother rang the door, December ran back and stood near the road.

"December, where are you going?" her mother asked her.

December reached into her pocket. She pulled out a very bulky disposable camera. As she did so, memories of before she left home came back.

The memories of Nicky handing the camera over to her. The promise they made.

Nicky said to take a couple of pictures of Alaska, since he had never been there before. He wanted to go, but his parents wouldn't let him. Strangely, Rene was allowed to stay at the trusted best friend of December's mother. Now why couldn't December stay too?

Instead of fighting it over like she had when she was leaving, she picked up the camera to eye level and aimed at a choppy direction of the house. If she knew what a cheers was, then it would've probably gone, "To the house I will be in for the following week." But she was too cold to say something out of contexts and memorable, so instead, she stayed piped down and took the snapshot.

* * *

Kike was...pretty much the same. Not that he wanted to hurt December, but by the way he acted. He still messed up words like when he was nine. And even though December couldn't say it in better terms, she knew that he wasn't "all there." 

by the end of the first hour, she had already noted him down like a checklist. She knew all she needed to know about Kike.

First of all, she could still have fun with him. He was "not there" at a certain level of intelligence, but it was enough for December and Kike to be at the right pace with each other.

Another plus was that Kike was a learning boy. He _wanted_ to learn things.

The best of all; he was fun to hang around with.

They enjoyed playing with each other. The first game they played together was hide and seek. Then they would go to tag and others. Then came board games, where they incorrectly played games like Monopoly. It was all about the joy in it.

So December's mother didn't see the harm in leaving with Kike's parents to go and talk about grown-up things at a fancy restaurant.

Of course, they weren't stupid either.

They hired a babysitter in the neighborhood to take care of the two as they left for the talk.

So as soon as they left, it was just December, Kike, and Jessica the nineteen year old babysitter who should be working at McDonald's instead or something, sitting in front of the living room TV, watching Ash succeed on the Anime show.

"I wanna play Hide'n Seek again!" Kike stated.

"Don't you guys have these TV show character card thingies to play together with?" Jessica asked.

Kike looked at December. "Do you wanna s'play Pokémon?"

"Not really..."

"Oh come on, it looks like something pretty fun," Jessica put in, looking at Pikachu set off the sprinklers in Brock's gym.

"But I don't have any cards."

"I's have cards," Kike replied.

December just didn't know how to say it. She wasn't in the mood to play anything that had to do with cards at the moment. Really, she preferred if they played hide and seek.

"Can we play hide and seek instead?" December asked.

Jessica turned to see Kike. "You OK with that?"

"Yeah, Hide'n Seek is s'cool!"

"Do you wanna play too?" asked December.

"Oh, well I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm too old to play hide and seek."

"No...you're s'good. It's fun!" Kike broke in

With just one more glance of back and forth action, Jessica gave in. "Alright, but I have to warn you two, I was the king of that game when I was small."

* * *

In a choice of rock, paper, scissor action, December was to seek. She didn't want to at first and wanted rematches, in which Jessica volunteered to take her place, but Kike apparently had to follow those rules of choice enough to make a religion that there was no going around it. 

So, December was left alone in Kike's room as the other two ran off to hide.

December put her face on the bed, a bit disappointed, and started counting.

* * *

All fun and games. That's the child dream. In order to let the child mind progress with these fond memories of fun, there had to be cooperation. All cooperation was in this situation was given by the fate of the babysitter. 

Fun, she hadn't done that in a long time. At least, not the kind December and Kike were having.

She hid in the closet. Possibly the most likely place to look, and that was the fun of it.

Kike watched. He saw her enter that closet. And once she had, he locked that door, and moved on.

Into the kitchen. Normally, a child in the kitchen would mean snack time. Though snacks weren't what Kike was looking at.

Other than food in a kitchen, there were more shinier things. Reflective things. Things that you wouldn't want to see a child with. Only, Kike was a child in mind, not in age. In age, he could reach that object and wait around the corner for some victim to come around.

He could play killer.

Or, he could do something else.

Looking away from sadistic thoughts, Kike found the fish bowl. There were a total of five tiny goldfish.

He grabbed the entire thing, and exited the kitchen.

* * *

"Okay, ready or not here I come!" 

December turned around. There was absolutely nothing but the solid quiet noise—and the not so solid room. She didn't expect to find everyone in zero point three seconds, but that would've been nice.

She walked out into the halls. Down the hall was the kitchen. She walked towards that area, unknowingly passing the door that held the babysitter, who didn't know she had no way out of the closet.

Closer to the kitchen. Then in the kitchen.

Water on the floor. Hmm, drops? Leading to the living room? Why not follow then?

To the living room she went. The drops continued to the front of the house. And the door was wide open.

December looked outside, wondering if either Kike or Jessica actually went to hide outside. Then she saw something on the street.

She looked closer. It looked like...

the goldfish bowl? Were the goldfish still in it?

Quickly, December made her way out and closer to the street. As she did, everything got a lot colder. She wasn't wearing her jacket.

Out on the street, she bent down and picked up the bowl. Yep, the fish were in there.

But when she turned around, the front door was closed.

The sky was getting darker and the air was getting colder. December quickly ran on back to the door. When she tried to open it though, she found it to be locked.

"Hey, open the door!" she screamed. She put down the bowl. "Come on, it's cold outside!"

After standing and screaming for at least a minute, she ran to the window. She knocked hard. Not a moment to spare, Kike was on the other side.

"Kike, can you open the door?"

Kike didn't answer. He just looked at her, with an expression of pressing on. It was the expression that showed he didn't even know December was right in front of him, only, she was.

"Kike?" December asked.

The blinds were pulled down and shut.

"No! Kike!" December screamed. She pounded on the window. He wasn't coming back. Kike had just left December out in the cold with no telling whether he was going to bring her back inside.

December was getting even colder. She circled the house and tried to find an entrance, but found none. The garage was locked from the inside and no windows were opened. Not even the basement windows which were always—or at least where December lived—left open for some strange reason weren't open.

It was torture. There was nothing December could do.

Now, in a logical situation of this kind, it would be the best of common sense to say knock on a neighbors door and enter, be safe.

But December was taught strangers were bad. And in the neighborhood she was in, everyone was considered a stranger. Therefore, everyone was bad.

Five minutes outside. Colder than ever. She had to do something, or else she would die. For a child, she knew that this was bad. And she knew that it was possible.

So she thought up a plan.

Quickly, she pulled a heavy silver garbage can towards the side of the house. It really smelled horrible. Once she was at the side of the house, she began to kick at the basement windows. They were way too small for her to crawl through, but there was warm air down there. She knew that because she knew there was the heater down there. That was from experience in her house.

Again, she kicked. She kicked several times, and finally, a small shard of glass broke in. it was just enough to stick her finger through.

December looked around the area for the first time. There was a shovel holding a fence as if to keep it locked. It was a very stupid way to lock a back, but she didn't care at the moment. She didn't even know that it was stupid to do so.

With the shovel, she hit the basement window. She went at it several times again, trying to get the glass hole bigger.

Then it was finally big enough.

She got on the ground and reached in. hot air rolled over her hand. Heat. She wanted more of it.

She sat against it, her but to the small opening. She tipped the garbage can all over herself. She couldn't believe she was doing it, but the disgusting and somewhat wet trash felt warm all over her. She didn't want to know why, she was just happy that it was.

Then she sat there. A tear rolled down her cheek.

"I wanna—go home!" she screamed.

No one would hear her. That night in fact, she fell asleep out there. When her mother came home, when she and Kike's mother and father entered the house, they only found Kike. And they found that Jessica was pounding on the closet door wanting to get out.

They did not know where December was. Kike wouldn't tell. The police came over and were ordered to search the entire neighborhood. It wasn't until one of the police men entered the basement, that he saw the broken glass and December's but where the window should've been. Where trash and some very sick looking black and brown liquid were flowing inside. Ew.

The police went around the house and picked up the sleeping girl. She was cold. She felt dead cold, but she was breathing.

And off they went in the white car with the flashing reds.

The answer the police want now is why this happened. Only December and Kike know. And niether of them would tell, both for the same reason. Fear.

_Asleep in winter._


	4. Hate

Eh, a quicky chapter I did because of writer's block on my original story. Finally, the M rating begins to take place. Sort of. Also, if you all didn't know, I wrote a long one-shot that can be found in Ryu the Weredragon's "Pokemon Transformation Chronicles" called Reflection, which is on my favorites list. Ignore the misspelling of Combusken there. XD

EDIT: lol, I typed chapter 33. XD

**Chapter 3: Hate**

_April 20, 1999_

"But Nicky called him a _Nigger_ too," December explained.

"Yes December, but you're not listening to me. That is a _really_ bad word. It's also a really mean word."

Her mother tried to explain the racial word to December, hoping to make her never say it again. During at their school, she and a couple of other kids had called an African-American student the "N" word, and would just not stop. They persisted, and the teachers of course heard. It was not something they felt that kids should be saying. As a matter of fact, they believed no one should be allowed to say that word.

"But that _Nigger_ was mean to us to; why can't I be mean to him?"

Her mother cringed again. She almost broke down right there, but kept steady. If she wanted her daughter to forget about that word, she had to tell her clearly.

"Where did you hear that word anyway?"

"Mrs. Peterson was calling someone on her phone a _Nigger_."

No wonder. As much as she did not want to think negatively to this Mrs. Peterson, she had to say it to hopefully clear it through with December.

"Yes, but Mrs. Peterson is Black. She can say it." As soon as she said that, she tried to take it back. She wondered if there was an easier way of explaining it.

In December's mind, she could not grasp what her mother was saying at all. There was nothing wrong with the word to her; to her, it was just a word, ranging from the likes of "the" to "stupid."

"Hon, have you seen the news today?" The voice had come from Miguel. Or at least, that was what December's mother would call him. To December, she was supposed to accept him as "Dad."

Interesting history about him; originally, Rene was adopted by December's mother. This Miguel is the original father of Rene, but lost him in a divorce against his previous engagement. The mother gave Rene away, and December's mother adopted him. Miguel, just a couple of months before, had finally been able to reach Rene, and found out where he lived. And thus, spark sparked between December's mother and this Miguel person, causing some sort of relationship.

December did not really know much about that though. All she knew was that Miguel was now living with them, and most likely would be for awhile now.

"No, what's going on?"

"There was a school shooting in Jefferson County!"

"What?"

It was an apparent shock to them both. It had happened so close to their location in Denver; who wouldn't be shocked?

December did not want to listen to this though; she left the room and into the living room, where Rene sat, watching TV. Digimon.

Although she did not find this show amusing, she sat next to her brother and watched. She overheard a couple of words that her parents were saying, the loudest one being "Column" or something, but she did not think too much on it.

Then they entered the living room.

"Rene, mind if I change the channel for a bit?"

"But I'm watching Digimon…" Rene argued with pleading eyes. It was those same eyes a dog would give you; who could actually still act when you were given those eyes?

Apparently, the answer was "Miguel."

The channel was changed to that of news. As much as December did not want to watch this, there was nothing else she had to do. She decided to stay there and just sit; she knew for a fact that it was going to be better than whatever it was that Rene was going to do when he left the room sad.

Videos of the outside of a large school were shown. There was nothing that interested her about it, but she knew that there was sometimes something interesting in things such as the news; Miguel had told her that, and even showed her some things that she did in fact find interesting.

"What's happening?" she asked.

Neither her mother nor Miguel answered. Finding this boring, she left the room. If there was going to be something interesting to her, then it would have caught her attention then and there.

So she found herself walking right into Rene's room. He was on the floor with a couple of Lego's thrown around. And next to him were completely un-readable instructions on how to make a Star Wars ship. Or, at least they were un-readable to December. She honestly could not figure out how her brother understood words so tiny. If it had been her, she would have given up already.

She sat next to him and picked up a Lego piece.

"Don't touch it!" Rene yelled, grabbing the piece away from her.

December pouted, anger on her face. There were two things that she did not like about boys; one being the fact that they did not like it when girls touched their stuff, and the other being that they always thought that girls did not know how to use things like a Lego puzzle.

"I know how to use these!" she yelled back at him.

"No you don't," he argued.

This went on back and forth for quite some time. In the end though, Rene had his piece back and was sticking it with other pieces. Already, the bottom half was showing. It was noticeable of what it was going to become.

"I can do this; why don't you let me try?"

"Because you're a girl."

"But I can do this!"

The white paper was tossed at December. She grabbed it and was about to throw it back, when Rene said, "Read it and try to make Star Wars."

She looked at it for awhile. The words looked like scribbles. She shuddered.

"_Nigger_, I can do this! Just give me a chance already."

Rene was about to say something to her along the lines of "no you don't," but the new word intrigued him. He thought about it for a moment, then asked, "What does _Nigger_ mean?"

"I don't know." There was a short silence as Rene thought about what it could mean. It occurred in his mind that it was most likely an insult; why else would December call him that?

"Well, try doing it then," he said, trying to avoid talking about the new word. He would ask his mother about the word later.

Quickly, December thought about the Lego blocks, trying to organize them in her mind. She saw the box next to Rene, and reached for it. She looked at it for a long while, the shape of the spacecraft.

She used it as a reference and began to take away some of the pieces added on. It was not a lot, but Rene was worried. She was taking apart the little that he had put together.

Reds and whites were added together, guns were pressed into right and wrong places. After awhile, Rene got his own little pile and the paper that his sister was not using.

He read off of it, and began to build again, his sister way ahead of him.

And so they raced to see who would finish it first.

A very long time passed, but soon, December finished. A few minutes later, Rene finished.

When compared, it was obvious that Rene's near perfection was neater than December's slightly slanted and curved ship.

"Mine's better, see?" Rene began.

December picked up the box and looked at it for a long while again, and then answered, "But mine looks like the picture…"

Rene looked at the picture, then at December's creation. He had to admit, it did _look_ like a ship. It was probably not the one in the picture, but it looked like a ship. That was all he could think of saying to her, so as he was told while growing up, he reluctantly complimented her.

"It's okay, but it's not Star Wars," he said.

December smiled. It was all she needed to hear.

* * *

Later that night, December's mother called her into the kitchen. She was busy in her room, but decided that it was better if she did not get on the bad side of her mother. She walked in, a questioning look on her face. 

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Rene stood next to her mother. And her mother just stared at her. "What did I say about using that word?"

Oh, so that was what it was about. She had no clue that Rene was actually going to tell her about that little word she had openly spoken to him. She did not think he would do that. She wished to bring up the talk she brought up before, and say that it was just a word like any other word, but her mother persisted to believe that it was bad.

"December, you can't just go around saying that word. It's very mean and could hurt someone."

"How?"

"Just like the word 'stupid' hurts people, the 'N' word does the same. Except, the 'N' word is worse than the 'S' word."

"Why? It's just a word."

December's mother picked up the nearest plastic plate and slammed down hard on the counter. It made December jump, shocked. "Damn it December; it's just bad to use the word!"

"Wow, what's going on in here?" Miguel asked as he walked in sleepily. He was resting on the couch a moment ago; he was sure fast.

December did not say anything; neither did Rene.

"Honey," December's mother began, "tell these children how _wonderful_ the word _Nigger_ is." She was, of course, being sarcastic.

Miguel just stood there for a second, unsure of how he should react to that. He tried to say something, but all that came out was mumbles. So instead, he started with, "Who was saying the word?"

All she did was point at December.

"December?" Miguel wondered, shocked. "I'm surprised." He was now looking at her, expecting an answer from the young girl. "I thought you would be better than this; what's going on December?"

It was getting much harder to explain; it was much easier to say it more before, but the voice that Miguel would give her was just so…she could not describe it. It was as if an angel was asking her why she was being a bad girl, only she didn't know it.

"Some of my friends were saying it at school…" she tried explaining.

Miguel just stooped down to her eye level, holding her shoulders. "December, that's a really bad word. If your friends are saying that, then they aren't your friends."

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," her mother cut in, "you're not going to see them again anyways."

Miguel flinched a bit. They had discussed that they were going to break it to the kids, but not in that fashion. And this went all the wrong way.

"What?" December asked, a devastated voice coming from her. Even Rene was shocked. "Why?"

Miguel immediately tried to get out of this one. "Not right away December; it's going to take some time. We aren't going anywhere just yet."

"But why are we leaving?" her voice was going high, and her eyes were becoming watery. "I have friends here…"

As much as Miguel did not want to explain why they were leaving, he knew that he would have to. If he were December, then he would not stop asking why until the truth was revealed. He did not want this to happen, especially when the truth would come eventually. Heck, she would probably hear about it when she went back to school.

"There was an accident at a school nearby here today," he started.

"What happened?"

"…these two kids…they used…guns…and sh—hurt a lot of people. Your mother's scared, and I agree with her when she says that we should move somewhere safer."

"But it's safe right here!"

"No it's not, December," her mother cut in. "You are learning some nasty things right now; I can't imagine what you would learn when you are grown up here. This place is too dangerous. We're going somewhere quieter."

"Quieter?" December wondered.

"Yes, quieter. We're leaving as soon as we find a new house wherever we are going."

So the place they were going to was not decided yet. December did not know the ways of buying houses, but she felt that she had some time with this little delay of not knowing where to go. Maybe, as time passed, she could convince her parents that they should stay there, in Denver.

She looked at Rene, pleading for something from him. She expected him to be able to change her Mom's mind; if anything, he would be able to do that. He was innocent to her mother.

But he had nothing to say, and kept quiet.

"Why do we have to go?" December asked one last time.

"Because it's too dangerous here," her mother simply answered. And so, the conversation was closed. They were going to move soon; December was not sure where and when, but she knew that it was soon.

She left the room and headed for her own room. She did not cry; instead, she felt…anger. Anger towards her mother. It was probably the first time that she had felt something this way, and something deep inside of her was afraid that this rage would turn to something more…

But she could not feel this voice's plea to not have this rage, and she kept it.

_Rage for House._


End file.
